Pastoral Rule, Dialogues & Letters 22

(Admonition 3.) In one way are the poor to be admonished, in another the rich; for to the former we ought to offer the solace of consolation against tribulation, but upon the latter we ought to impose fear against pride. For to the poor man it is said by the Lord through the prophet: Fear not, for thou shalt not be confounded (Isa. 54:4). And, coaxing her not long after, He says: O poor little one, tossed with tempest (ibid. 11). And again He consoles her, saying: I have chosen thee in the furnace of poverty (ibid. 48:10). But on the contrary Paul says to his disciple concerning the rich: Charge the rich of this world not to be highminded, nor to trust in the uncertainty of riches (1 Tim. 6:17). Here it is greatly to be noted that the teacher of humility, making mention of the rich, says not, Ask, but,

Charge; because, although compassion is to be shown to infirmity, yet honour is not owed to arrogance. To such men, therefore, what is rightly said is the more rightly commanded, in proportion as they swell up in transitory things with loftiness of thought. Of these the Lord says in the Gospel: Woe to you that are rich, for you have your consolation (Luke 6:24). For because they know not the joys which are eternal, they are consoled by the abundance of the present life. Consolation, therefore, is to be offered to those whom the furnace of poverty burns; and fear is to be imposed upon those whom the consolation of temporal glory exalts; that both the former may learn that they possess riches which they behold not, and the latter may recognise that they can by no means retain those which they behold.

Yet for the most part the quality of character changes the order of persons, so that a rich man may be humble and a poor man haughty. Whence the tongue of the preacher ought at once to be adjusted to the life of the hearer, so that it may strike pride the more strictly in the poor man, the more that poverty itself, though imposed, does not bend it; and may soothe the humility of the rich the more gently, the more that abundance, which raises them up, does not exalt them. Sometimes, however, even the proud rich man is to be appeased by the blandishment of exhortation, because for the most part hard wounds soften under gentle fomentations, and the frenzy of the mad is often brought back to health by the physician's coaxing; and when there is a condescending to them in gentleness, the languor of their madness is mitigated.

Nor indeed is it to be regarded carelessly that, when an evil spirit assailed Saul, David, taking up his harp, calmed his madness (1 Sam. 18:10). For what is signified by Saul but the pride of the powerful; and what is intimated by David but the humble life of the saints? When therefore Saul is seized by the unclean spirit, his madness is tempered by David's playing; because when the sense of the powerful is turned to fury through pride, it is fitting that it be recalled to health of mind, as it were by the sweetness of the harp, through the tranquillity of our speech. But sometimes, when the powerful of this world are to be rebuked, they must first be approached by certain likenesses, as though concerning another's affair;

and when they have pronounced a right sentence, as though against another, then in fitting ways they are to be struck concerning their own guilt; so that the mind, swollen with temporal power, may in no wise raise itself up against the one who reproves it, seeing that by its own judgement it treads down the neck of its own pride; and may exert itself in no defence of itself, since the sentence of its own mouth binds it. For this is why the prophet Nathan had come to reprove the king, and, as though concerning the cause of a poor man against a rich, sought a judgement (2 Sam. 12:4ff.); that first the king might pronounce the sentence, and afterwards hear his own guilt, so that he might in no wise contradict the justice which he himself had pronounced against himself.

Thus the holy man, considering both the sinner and the king, by a wondrous order first strove to bind the bold culprit through confession, and afterwards to cut him through invective. He concealed for a little while the one he sought, but suddenly struck the one he held. For perhaps he would have fallen upon him too sluggishly, had he willed openly to strike the fault from the very outset of his discourse; but by the likeness set before it, he sharpened the reproof which he had kept hidden. The physician had come to the sick man, he saw that the wound must be lanced, but he doubted of the sick man's patience. He therefore hid the healing iron beneath his garment, which, drawn out suddenly, he fixed in the wound, that the sick man might feel the cutting blade before he beheld it, lest, if he beheld it beforehand, he should refuse to feel it.